


A Shimmering Moment

by centreoftheselights



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Demiromantic Character, F/F, First Dates, First Time, Fluff and Smut, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 09:23:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3351503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/centreoftheselights/pseuds/centreoftheselights
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura is ready to take their relationship to the next level. The last thing she expects is that Carmilla isn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Shimmering Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Demiromantic: Regardless of sexual attraction, a demiromantic person feels romantic attraction very rarely, and only to people to whom they already have a close emotional connection.

Dating your roommate has some advantages, Laura thought as she slid her hands under the hem of Carmilla’s shirt. She was in her pyjamas, having been about to go to bed when her goodnight kiss from her girlfriend had turned into a full-on make-out session. Oh well, missed sleep was what Reading Week was for – now, Laura was pretty much wide awake, and gasping as Carmilla pressed a gentle line of kisses down her neck while her fingers teased Laura’s nipple, but Carmilla herself was still frustratingly clothed.

Laura brushed her fingertips along the gentle curve of Carmilla’s hips, exploring the taut muscles of her abdomen and stroking along her spine in the way that always made her shiver.

Feeling adventurous, Laura traced her hands down instead of up, hovering just above Carmilla’s waistline like a question. They hadn’t gone there yet, and she didn’t want to push too fast, but right now she was turned on and ready for more.

She felt Carmilla smile against her neck, and head her whisper: “My bra isn’t going to remove itself, you know.”

Right. Laura smiled guiltily. Foreplay first. After all, they had all night.

She busied herself with Carmilla’s bra, and what lay under it, relishing the sharp hiss of breath as she sucked a hickey into Carmilla’s neck, but Laura Hollis would not be deterred for long. She pushed Carmilla backwards to her bed. The dark-haired girl smiled lazily up at her as Laura straddled her hips.

“Feeling feisty tonight?” she teased.

“You have no idea,” Laura answered, leaning down to kiss her again, and see what new noises she could provoke.

By the time Laura tried sucking on Carmilla’s earlobe, her girlfriend was practically panting underneath her, and from a vampire who didn’t technically need oxygen, that was almost definitely a sign things were headed in the right direction. This time, Laura was more direct – she reached back to where Carmilla was grasping her ass, and gently moved the hand towards the front of her pants.

Carmilla went still for a moment, and Laura let up on kissing her, knowing her girlfriend would want to be absolutely clear.

“Are you sure this isn’t moving too fast?” Carmilla asked, her fingers curling around the loose ties of Laura’s pyjamas.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty much warmed up,” Laura answered, trying not to blush.

“No, I mean –” Carmilla let the ties drop. “The two of us. We’ve only been together a few weeks.”

“I know, but it feels like longer than that,” Laura told her. “And besides, it’s not like it’s the first time for either of us.”

She’d been trying to make a joke, but Carmilla’s mouth was suddenly a hard line that meant she was trying not to show that she had emotions.

Laura rolled off of Carmilla to lie to the side of her. “I’m not trying to say it doesn’t matter – of course it matters –”

“No, it’s fine,” Carmilla shrugged it off. “Let’s do this.”

“Nuh uh.” Laura re-tied the bow on her pyjama pants. “These pants are closed for business until you tell me what’s wrong.”

Carmilla gave her an exasperated look, but Laura stood firm.

“It’s just... different,” Carmilla said eventually. “Normally when I’m with a girl, it’s a seduction. I play whoever she wants me to be. I’m not...”

She glanced down at herself with a look that cracked Laura’s heart a little.

“Hey.” Laura wrapped an arm around her, and pressed their foreheads together. “I know who you are. It’s you I want, not anyone else.”

“I know, I’m not worried about that,” Carmilla said. “I just... I’m not sure I know how.”

Her voice was so quiet Laura almost wasn’t sure she head. She thought very carefully before speaking again, worried her words would make things worse, but she thought this was the kind of poison that had to be drawn out.

“You and Elle...” she said softly. “You never...?”

Carmilla shook her head. “Things were different back then. If you really cared about a girl, you waited. I thought we’d have time...”

Her voice broke, and Laura snuggled closer, buried her face into Carmilla’s shoulder so Carmilla had no choice but to do the same.

“We can wait, if that’s what you want,” Laura told her. “I’ll still be with you, no matter how long it takes.”

Carmilla laughs. “No, it’s not that. I always thought waiting was silly, even if it was romantic. It’s just – I’ve fucked hundreds of girls, but I’ve never...”

“Made love?” Laura finished for her.

Carmilla groaned, and turned away from Laura, hiding her face in the pillow. “I sound like such a virgin.”

Laura wrapped her arms over Carmilla’s shoulders, and pressed a kiss to the back of her neck. “At least you’re a centuries-old badass virgin?”

“Thanks,” Carmilla said grumpily, but she laughed too.

“Now, stay still so I can fall asleep on you,” Laura told her. But in the back of her mind, she was beginning to formulate a plan.

 

Three days later, Carmilla tried to undo Laura’s jeans.

“Not today,” Laura told her with a smile.

Carmilla fixed her with a suspicious eye. “Why not?”

Laura tried not to look secretive.

“You’ve come up with one of your ridiculous plans, haven’t you?” Carmilla sighed. “Tell me you aren’t going to woo me.”

“Umm...”

“I could just seduce you, you know.”

“But you’re not going to, because you secretly want me to sweep you off your feet.”

Carmilla rolled her eyes. “Fine. Do whatever you’re going to do.”

Laura grinned. “Like you could stop me.”

 

It takes about a week to put together, with her friends’ help. When the night came, Laura could hardly stop grinning as she suggested that she and Carmilla take a walk around campus.

“This is your secret plan, isn’t it?” Carmilla said with a dramatic sigh.

“What do you mean?” Laura feigned innocence.

“Please. Like you would voluntarily exercise when you could make me stay in and watch British TV shows.”

Laura pulled a face. “Just come along and stop pretending you’re not enjoying this.”

“Fine.” Carmilla couldn’t quite hide her smile as she took Laura’s hand. “Lead the way.”

Together, they made their way across to the broad hill that was the site of the university’s observatory.

“We’re headed to the telescope?” Carmilla asked, with a curl of her lip.

“Not exactly.” Laura led her off the path and onto the grass, to where the curve of the hill had hidden a picnic blanket. “I thought you might like your stars the old-fashioned way.”

“Not just a pretty face.” Carmilla smiled, and settled herself on the blanket. “So, what’s for dinner?”

She nodded to the picnic basket that lay at her feet.

“Not so much dinner...” Laura admitted, opening it up to reveal a bottle of the cheapest champagne they’d had in the supermarket at the centre of town. “There are some strawberries too, and chocolates. But I thought we could start with this.”

She poured out two glasses, trying not to splash too much onto the blanket, and handed one over to her girlfriend.

“Does that make me tonight’s virgin sacrifice?” Carmilla asked.

Laura laughed as she sat down next to her. “Not so much. Tonight is just a chance for us to be... us.”

“Until we get interrupted by giant mushrooms, or a rampaging werewolf...”

“No,” Laura said firmly. “I asked Kirsch and his ‘bros’ to patrol for us. No interruptions. Just you, me, and the stars.”

Carmilla took a sip of her champagne. “You really do know how to woo a girl.”

“Not bad for our first real date, huh?” Laura said, leaning her head against Carmilla’s shoulder. “Now, show me the constellations. I don’t know any except the Big Dipper...”

 

The night was everything Laura had wanted it to be. She’d listened to Carmilla wax poetical about the beauty of the night sky, drunk enough champagne to leave her light-headed and giggly, and then they’d fed each other chocolates and strawberries, making such a mess that Laura just had to suck the sweet red juice from Carmilla’s fingertips. But the autumn air was chilly, and even with Carmilla’s jacket wrapped around her shoulders, it was soon time to return indoors.

They made their way back to the dorm, waving at Kirsch as they passed to let him know they were headed home. It was hard to keep quiet past the rooms where people were probably already sleeping – Laura’s chest was so full of happiness that it seemed to just bubble out of her as laughter any chance it got.

“You’re such a lightweight,” Carmilla teased her. “You only had one glass of champagne.”

“You love it,” Laura said.

Carmilla was quiet for a few seconds.

“Yeah, I do.”

They came to a halt outside the door to the room, Carmilla stopping to look at Laura.

“So,” she asked. “Is this the time for a goodnight kiss?”

“Not exactly,” Laura admitted, pushing the door open and hoping Perry had done her job.

She had, and even though it was her idea, the sight of it took Laura’s breath away.

Fairy lights. Dozens of strings of them – borrowed from the theatre club’s prop room – strung over the ceiling of the room, making everything twinkle and glow.

Carmilla led the way inside, a look on her face that Laura could only think of as wonder, although she knew Carmilla would deny feeling any such thing.

“I, um –” Laura hesitated after shutting the door, the alcohol blurring her planned speech. “I asked LaFontaine, who asked some people, and there’s a thing – some people only feel romantic towards very few people, there’s a word for it –”

Carmilla took Laura’s head in her hands.

“Demiromantic!” Laura said, a little too loudly. “Sorry. That’s the word. So, I thought you might want to think about if that’s a word you might want to use...”

Carmilla smiled, and Laura suddenly felt a great deal more sober.

“And I don’t want to pressure you into anything tonight, we don’t have to do anything you’re not one hundred percent comfortable with, but I just thought...”

“Laura,” Carmilla said softly.

“Uh huh?”

Carmilla kissed her, gentle and reassuring, and somehow Laura felt grounded even as she was flying through the air.

When Carmilla pulled away, they were both smiling.

“Well, come on, cutie,” Carmilla said. “My pants aren’t going to remove themselves.”

 

It isn’t perfect.

Laura gets a foot stuck inside her jeans and Carmilla accidentally elbows her face and it turns out the two of them have rather different opinions on when and where biting counts as fun. But there are moments – the first kiss Laura presses against Carmilla’s hipbone, Carmilla whispering against the curve of Laura’s thigh in a language she doesn’t speak, and that bright, shining moment where one of the bedsprings squeaks unnaturally loudly and they pause just to meet each others’ eyes and laugh –

It isn’t perfect, but it’s them. It’s broken and bickering and beautiful, and they are surrounded by stars, just the two of them floating together in the darkness, bringing each other to life.

They take it slow, take their time learning each other, and when they’re done – when Laura collapses, exhausted and groaning “No more!” and Carmilla sighs and curls up contented, her head on Laura’s breast – Laura presses a kiss to her lover’s hair, and whispers, “I love you too.”

Carmilla pretends to be asleep, but that doesn’t matter.

Laura will say it again tomorrow.


End file.
